Thanks for posting those wonderful photos. I've marked your site to come back to later and look at other shots. Hope you'll be able to come to Memphis next fall for the National here.
Glenn

wonderful photos. I loved them
Dawn

Thank you for the wonderful photos from San Diego. I was not able to attend, so this feels like I was there.
Did you make any of the designs? Our rose arrangers have gotten so creative. I am so pleased.
Jo

Hi Jo...
No I wasn't able to enter the Design section this year as we had been on the road for nearly a month before arriving in San Diego.
I have entered before and won at the National level which is always a thrill and you are right...the level of excellence seems to be on the rise each convention.
I love doing Miniature Oriental...always a challenge to bring a design into being while keeping it within the designated size limits.

Thanks for the response. I have attended several Nationals myself, and I am sure many people miss the perfect miniature designs of Steve House. (and his larger ones, as well.) I have always felt the miniatures required special talent! Glad you enjoy them, too.
Jo

Hi Jo...
Steve and I shared a rather unique relationship.
For whatever reason, the first time I met him, he had been assigned to exhibit right next to all of my entries.
He was such a gentleman and had such a wonderful sense of humor and was very supportive and helpful to everyone who asked a question.
He was having difficulty walking and was using a large, bulky hotel luggage cart to bring his arrangements to the exhibit area. The aisles were very narrow and we were constantly tripping over each other as we put our arrangements on the table. By the time we were finished we both had the giggles. I noticed that he was using a syringe to add water as the final touch to some of his designs and asked him where he got them from. As a nurse, I knew that you needed a doctor's prescription in order to have syringes. It was then that he explained his medical problems and said that he had been using them for several years and promised to give me a couple of empty syringes so that I could add that little bit of extra water that tiny arrangements so often needed.
The episode of the bulky luggage cart was a constant source of joking between us each time we met afterwards.
At the Philadelphia show when I won a keeper trophy I found his name inside the box that contained the glass vase on the day that we got word that Steve had passed away.
That trophy means more to me as a reminder of Steve than the winning of it imparted.
Meg

Meg, thanks for sharing your experiences with Steve. I always chided him for his "half" mini mass designs.(almost his trademarks). They were perfect in all respects, except that the whole back was flat and up against his little backgrounds. Told him they were not balanced, but he just smiled as he won big anyway!!
Not often we find someone so talented in both standard and miniature arrangements.
Cheers, Jo